New York jurors found Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) guilty on 16 corruption charges, but the Supreme Court may have the final say on his fate and that of a pair of co-defendants found guilty of bribing the senator. Larry Lustberg, an attorney for a New Jersey real estate developer found guilty of bribing the senator with cash and gold bars, said he’ll appeal “as long and as high” as needed. The defense attorneys’ bet may be that the high court, which has undone several of the most high-profile political corruption cases in recent years, will do so again, Politico reports. Menendez’s team includes Yaakov Roth, , who represented former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell in his bribery case and argued on behalf of “Bridgegate” defendant Bridget Kelly and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco at the Supreme Court, which overturned all three convictions.
A Menendez attorney said Tuesday that appeals would focus on “grave” issues from the trial. Menendez raised repeated concerns about evidence prosecutors tried to introduce that could step on lawmakers’ constitutional “speech or debate” privileges, a form of immunity for members of Congress. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein’s “speech or debate” rulings created a paradox for prosecutors; each time the judge sided with them, he handed Menendez’s legal team more fodder for an appeal that might intrigue the Supreme Court. The senator’s legal team won at least one speech or debate fight to exclude evidence that federal prosecutors said was “critical” to proving their allegations that Menendez took bribes to help the Egyptian government. Stein also found there were other communications about legislative activity that prosecutors could show jurors. The judge ultimately let prosecutors introduce a text message Menendez received about a Senate resolution praising Qatar’s help evacuating refugees from Afghanistan. Prosecutors said Menendez wanted to help a real estate developer cement a multimillion-dollar deal with a member of the Qatari royal family.